The social, cultural and media references to swinging often conjure up thoughts of a drab buffet to one side of a partying 70s lounge scene, a goldfish bowl filled with car keys acting as the centrepiece on top of the Pledge-polished sideboard. Forget slut shaming and housewife spankings over the hostess trolley, it's almost 2014...

By Cara Sutra:
A man who enjoys using a butt plug. Does that notion conjures up any homosexual connotations for you? Then you have fallen prey to one of the most common and persistent sexuality myths. When it comes to men's sex health, a surprising number of guys are questioning, "will anal sex toys make me gay?"

It can be really overwhelming shopping for sex toys when you see just how many different styles, sizes, shapes, and materials there are - but this guide should help you narrow it down so you're spending your hard earned cash wisely.

You crave nothing more than her largest strap-on wedged firmly up your ass. She, on the other hand, insists you spend the day doing the dishes dressed in sissy frills and heels. However, you're not a sissy and she doesn't own any strap on harnesses. How could things have gone so wrong?

What do you do when your sex drive is stronger than your partner's? How about having sexual fantasies that they have no interest in making reality? What if you're the one who doesn't fancy sex quite as often as before?

Shopping for sex toys on the high street isn’t as easy for everybody. What if you’re out shopping with your kids, or dad, or mother-in-law? What if that sex shop is right by where you work? What if you don’t want to head home, past the curtain-twitching neighbours, with a sex shop branded bag overflowing with anal beads, vibrating butt plugs and rabbit vibrators?
Here’s the good news: you don’t have to.

MysteryVibe definitely aren't your run-of-the-mill sex toy manufacturer. With the focus squarely on individuality and a sensual but body safe design, MysteryVibe genuinely care about the intensity of your pleasure experience using their creation. They create sex toys which are intuitive and offer multi-layered stimulation which can be tailored to your unique sexual desires.
MysteryVibe's startlingly brilliant new product is called Crescendo. Already attracting plenty of interest from both the adult and mainstream press, Crescendo by MysteryVibe incorporates all the features that sex toy connoisseurs have been waiting for.

There are a lot of different terms bandied around both the fetish and mainstream circles, relating to the orientation of players in kink and BDSM. Slave, submissive, switch - as well as various pet names such as puppy or bitch - can leave you feeling confused as to exactly where you stand in the grand scale of things.
The BDSM spectrum is very large (in fact I feel that vanilla or kinky, we are all on the same spectrum, not living synonymously) and the chances are you will find yourself drawn to one large label over another. My new article over at Erotica UK discusses why labels can be useful even if you're averse to labelling yourself normally, and what the difference is between the big three terms for submissive players in BDSM.

By Cara Sutra:
If you think that all sex begins and ends with penis-in-vagina, you are wrong on so many levels. And I'm talking about everyone there, but for the purposes of this article: especially women who love women, whether bisexual or lesbian. There are plenty of creative ways to tantalise and stimulate without resorting to the heteronormative, phallo-centric ideals society often loves to *ahem* thrust upon us. Yes, you can have amazing lesbian sex.

Your heart is beating faster and faster. You feel hot but cold and clammy all at once and you're not really sure why. You can barely think to open your mouth to reply to whatever question he just asked; in any case you know whatever reply you give will be words falling over each other and stuttering their way out into the air, catching in your throat with inexplicable nerves.

There are many ways to connect with others in the BDSM scene. Online, you may visit the several fetish forums and websites that exist, often featuring message boards, details of events and local persons with similar interests. A few examples of these are Fetlife, Informed Consent, Kink.com and Collarspace.

Do you require any special furniture? There are many adult themed hotels as well as play spaces like dungeons available for short term hire. Find them through searching the internet or signing up to adult chat and kinky dating communities.

By Cara Sutra:
One of the most common questions I get asked about sex toys is, “what is the best vibrator?” While it’s impossible for me to select the perfect vibrator for everyone, as we’re all unique, I can certainly tell you about the sex toys which work for me.

By Cara Sutra:
Do women-specific lubricants really matter? When you first realise that what your sex life needs is a little more glide, you will doubtless turn to sex lubricants to transform that dry chafe into sexy friction. It’s only when you start shopping for lubricants (at a well stocked online sex shop as Lubezilla) that you begin to realise that this task isn’t as simple as you’d first imagined.

"A mouth gag makes the one playing the role of the submissive owned party feel even more controlled and vulnerable, they also stop much of the noise that the person may emit during a spanking or ‘sexy punishment’ session as well as making the gagged person look even more appealing and corruptible for the one in position of Dominance and control."

I'm proud to introduce my first outing on the fabulous LELO blog: Don't Judge a Sex Toy by its Price Tag.
As well as giving you a Jessie J earworm for the rest of the day, you'll learn what it is about some sex toys that make them a lasting part of your go-to collection, other than simply a high price on the label.
Don't pay for brand names, fancy packaging or marketing spiel - pay for a sex toy which you'll actually use.

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